Slovakia Becomes BoringJuraj Lisiak
An inexperienced Clinton crony will soon become the new US ambassador in Bratislava.

Belarusian ParadoxesPeter Szyszlo
Belarusians are struggling to rebuild their post-Soviet economy, define national identity and understand their place in history.

Debate on Nationalism and National Identity

The Defence of 'Ethnic Hungarians'Cas Mudde
Successive Hungarian governments have learned to paraphrase nationalist demands in terms of human rights discourse sadly obscuring the reality that there are no ethnic groups.

Eclipsing Romania's
WoesCatherine Lovatt
Two Minutes and Twenty-Three SecondsSuperstition and science joined together for the total eclipse in Romania, as the country was distracted for a few minutes from its economic and political problems.

Czech Media and Civil Society: A
surveyJan Culik
The instruments of speech for the nation have been paralysed, and there is no systematic public debate about the most important issues of public interest.

Zelezny Pulls the Plug on Nova
TVJan Culik
The conflict between Vladimir Zelezny, the licence holder of Central nd Eastern Europe's most successful commercial TV station, Nova, and the station's American service providers came to a head.

Ten Years LaterSlawomir Majman
Communist Poland departed amid the hum of office fans, the clink of spoons stirring sugar into countless cups of coffee and the rustle of ballots falling into ballot boxes.

White-haired Whiners?Catherine Miller
Czech newspaper article condemning a recent pension increase has set off a ripple of public debate on the elderly in the Czech Republic.

Theme of the Week: Nuclear Power in Central and Eastern
Europe

Lithuania's Nuclear
DilemmaMel Huang
Lithunia must choose between maintaining self-sufficiency and
potentially incurring the wrath of the EU.

Ghost Town: Chernobyl twelve years onAndrew J Horton
Life in the 30km exclusion zone around Chernobyl still continues.
CER interviews a film documentarist about his visit to the area to record the lives of ordinary people.

Forward to the PastAndreas Beckmann
As Western societies are having serious second thoughts about
nuclear energy it seems to be gaining its second wind in Central and Eastern Europe.

Thick with CastlesVaclav Pinkava
Visit some of the pleantiful castles in the Czech Republic might keep the elderly and infirm out of politics.

Ten Years AfterMel Huang
23 August 1989, some one million Balts linked hands and created one of the longest human chains in history.

A Singer in a MinefieldTomas Pecina
Under Communism, few Czechs would even think of demanding courageous moral and political stances from their hairdressers, but such is not the case with members of the artistic community.

Ceausescu's ReturnCatherine Lovatt
In a symbolic attempt to disassociate Romania from the Ceausescu era, many of the Ceausescu possessions have been auctioned.

Czech Public TV: The
yellow-belliesJan Culik
In this second article in this series on Czech media and civil society, we see how politics and cowardice triumphed over journalistic standards at the nation's public television station last year.

Between Omerta and VendettaSam Vaknin
The language of business in countries in transition is suffused with the criminal parlance of violence.

Confronting JewishnessPart 2 - Generating a Generation
Peter Krasztev
In this, the second of three parts, we will look at how selected authors view their Jewishness and how they came to this consciousness.

Battle of the VaclavsAndrew Stroehlein
In Czech political thinking, left, right and centre are not nearly as important as Vaclav, Vaclav and Vaclav.

CER's Regular Columns

Post-moralismVaclav Pinkava
Blackmail is one key reason why morality, even in private life, does have something to do with public office.

UK: Central Europeans Keep
Out!Jan Culik
British bureaucracy, when dealing with foreigners applying for permission to enter the country, seems to be even worse than those in East and Central Europe, and it is encouraging Central European racism.

The Poets and the EclipseSam Vaknin
Intellectuals in the Balkans exert no moderating influence on their societies; on the contrary, they radicalize, dramatize, poison and incite.

Confronting JewishnessPart 3 - Tradition and normality
Peter Krasztev
In this, the final part of this series, we will look at how these authors view the concepts of tradition and normality.

A Lovely Tale of PhotographyPetr Nadas
This week, CER brings you
an excerpt from the unique "film novella" A Lovely Tale of
Photography from Hungarian writer Petr Nadas - a hallucinatory piece of prose-poetry.

Strays and StereotypesJoanna Rohozinska
Stereotypes of Romania and Romanians abound. The most damaging is that they are a backward culture, simultaneously ignorant and corrupt, and that NATO and EU accession conditions will introduce a structure to overcome these flaws.

It All Started with a Picnic...Paul Nemes
Glasnost and perestroika, did away with the only factor that ultimately held the Soviet empire together - fear. A key moment in the breaking of this grip of terror on Central and Eastern Europe was a picnic arranged on the Hungarian-Austrian border on 19 August 1989.

A Different Kind of Paper Wojtek Kosc
Though nothing new, the meaning of "alternative press" has changed. It is no longer associated with politics, but has diversified to almost exclusively cover arts, literature and ecology.

Retribution in KosovoNatasa Kandic
Notes from Natasa Kandic, director of the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Belgrade, describe some of the difficulties in the investigation of atrocities perpetrated by both sides in the conflict and suggest the fate of many of the new disappeared.

Theme of the Week: One Year after the Ground-breaking Slovak
Elections.

A Year of New GovernmentSharon Fisher
If Slovakia does not receive recognition for its efforts - in the form of an invitation to first-round EU enlargement talks at the Helsinki summit in November - Dzurinda's pro-Western government could collapse.

CER's Regular Columns

EpizodiacVaclav Pinkava
22 years after his first blockbuster, George Lucas's retrospective Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace, currently the third (second?) highest grossing movie of all time, is opening in Czech cinemas.

On Czechs, the Great
Myth-MakersTomas Pecina
Few nations have created so many myths about themselves as the Czechs. As with other national mythologies, Czech myths mostly concern the history and self-perception of the ethnic group.

Homo balkanusSam Vaknin
How does one respond to a torrent of belligerent correspondence from people in the Balkans, arguing against the belligerence of people in the Balkans?

Moldova: Barely a state Catherine Lovatt
Sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, politically unstable Moldova finds itself economically dependent on outside support and in a vulnerable position.

Kinoeye

Getting in Gear:
Janez Burger's V leruAndrew J Horton
Slovenia is not noted for the high quality of its cinema. However, V leru (Idle Running, 1998) was one of the festival's more interesting films.

A Victory for the Media?Marina Blagojevic
In ex-Yugoslavia, the media served to deconstruct commonalities and helped to create that matrix of non-negotiable differences demanding that "something must be done."

Special Report

The Czech Republic 1992 to
1999:From unintentional political birth to prolonged political
crisisAndrew Stroehleinwith Jan Culik, Steven Saxonberg and Kazi Stastna
This is an extensive account of the first years of the young Czech Republic.

EMU: Why Do It?Rob Smith
In our second article in the series, we
address how EMU came to be the essential next step in the development of Western Europe.

The Wine Time Jeffrey Brown
This is the time of
vinobrani - the wine festival.

Indiscriminate Visas?Vaclav Pinkava
Who decides which Czechs will get visas to Britain - and on what basis?

The War of the HypocritesTomas Pecina
The latest developments in Czech-Roma relations have put the Roma in a lose-lose situation.

Herzl's ButlersSam Vaknin
Europe is filled with small nations; there are two schools of thought in dealing with the thorny problems they create.

Mixed Czech NutsJan Culik
After the news from the Czech Republic over the past few weeks, it seems hardly surprising that an increasing number of people are turning off their televisions, hiding their money in mattresses and voting for the Communists.

Waiting for the Pay-backCatherine Lovatt
Romania is still waiting to reap the rewards of its support of the NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

Oh Give Me a Home...Gusztav Kosztolanyi
The number of people taking up mortgages in Hungary is increasing; however, the number of repossessions has reached epidemic proportions.

Kinoeye

A Deafening Silence: Ivo
Trajkov's MinulostAndrew J Horton
Among other contradictions, this film recreates the world of the deaf, not only through the use of plot, camerawork and editing, but also by means of sound.

Trouble on the Island of the
BlessedMagali Perrault
The success of Joerg Haider is often imprecisely explained by the
failure of the Austrians to face up to their role as Hitler's "willing executioners."

At the Second CrossroadsSasa Cvijetic
The process of democratic transition in Croatia has been more complex than in the other countries of post-Communist Europe.

After the First WaveRobert Smith
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in Europe looks set to happen in several waves.

Working with Russia (part 5)John Massey Stewart
The investment into solving Russia's vast environmental problems has been notable. But has the money been spent wisely?

Theme of the Week: Health

Operation Successful, Patient DeadGusztav Kosztolanyi
According to a recent survey, patient satisfaction with hospital care seems to be in line with the EU average. But scratch the surface and you'll quickly reveal the crisis in the Hungarian healthcare.

A Meek ProtestJan Culik
The recent Czech doctors strike was very mild, so much so that most patients hardly noticed.

Ten Years after What?Catherine Lovatt
President Emil Constantinescu controversially declared that the
collapse of Communism "meant no revolution."

The Dance of JaelSam Vaknin
People feel cheated by their post-Communist systems. Envy is the
central emotion.

Panoramic HindsightVaclav Pinkava
People who do learn from history are condemned to watch others repeat it.

The Educated PoorJan Culik
The decline in the living standards of university educated people in the Czech Republic has been sharp in the 1990s.

Kinoeye

This week, Kinoeye examines the most recent film by the acclaimed
Polish actor and director, Jerzy Stuhr, Tydzien z zycia mezczyzny (A Week in a Life of a Man, 1999).

What a Piece of Work is a Man!Artur Kosinski
Stuhr, one of Krzysztof Kieslowski's favourite actors, directs himself in the leading role once again in his third film, a study of how the facade of success is riddled with the cracks of human fallibility.

I Made a Film About
Weakness...Lukasz Maciejewski
At the Kazimierz Dolny film festival, Stuhr spoke to the press about his latest film, its making and how his films stand relative to
Kieslowski's.

On Display

Coming Up in the UKAndrew J Horton
Details of selected Central and East European cultural events in the UK over the next few weeks.

The Flutter-by EffectVaclav Pinkava
A short discussion of chaos theory, Czech fairytales and, in a
roundabout way, Czech politics.

Reminiscing RevolutionariesJan Culik
Last week's historians' conference in Prague dedicated to the tenth
anniversary of the Velvet Revolution seems to have been little more than a
celebratory feast run by victors.

Kinoeye

The Revolution Was
TelevisedHarun Farocki and Andrej Ujica's Videograms of a RevolutionRay Privett
When Romania rose up against Ceausescu in 1989, the TV cameras were
there to capture it all and now to be replayed.

Books and Literature

Two by Ewald MurrerJames Partridge
Two books by Czech writer Ewald Murrer, The Diary of Mr Pinke
and Dreams at the End of the Night, are rather disappointing

The Pursuit of UnhappinessAles Debeljak
Slovenia serves as an example of the necessity to develop a
cosmopolitan attitude which is characterized by a reflection of both local
cultural tradition and international codes of expression.

Erosion or SurvivalGusztav Kosztolanyi
CER talks to Alpar Losoncz, who lectures on and in the region about how
Vojvodinian Hungarians are holding on to their culture.

Vignettes of ViolenceAndrew J Horton
Post-Yugoslav cinema can scarcely avoid portraying violence given the
country's recent history. Directors have shown varying attitudes to the
subject, however.

Another TruthMaria Vidali
Are the Serbs really the "baddies" of Europe? Recent documentaries
challenge this tired old cliche.

Young Croatian FilmIvo Skrabalo
Just when it seemed like the Croatian film industry would vanish
altogether, a new group of young directors has brought a surprising wave of
optimism.

Cutting It ShortAndrew J Horton
Yugoslavia's fragile industry of short and experimental films was
honoured with two showings at the recent Raindance Film Festival in
London.

Focus on Fiks FokusAndrew J Horton
A talk with the art director of Fiks Fokus, an innovative Belgrade
production company weathering hard times.

CER's Regular Columns:

The Mioritic SpaceCatherine Lovatt
A look at poet and philosopher Lucien Blaga's attempts to define
notions of "Romanianness" through a complex and mystical theory of cultural
influences and collective unconsciousness.

PigeonsVaclav Pinkava
Are Czechs really a "dove-like nation"? And what is a dove, anyway?

Deflating Election ExperienceMel Huang
Estonia held its final elections of the millennium for all local
councils on 17 October in quite an unspectacular fashion. As both
politicians and voters remained burnt out from the hard-fought general
elections in March earlier this year, the local elections seemed a bit of
an anticlimax.

Race RelationsJan Culik
Rather than indulging in hypocritical posturing, we should simply admit
that Czech-Romani relations suffer from serious and complex problems, and
these should be tackled from both sides.

Fantasies of SalvationSteven Saxonberg
In his recent book Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism
and Myth in Post-Communist Societies, Vladimir Tismaneanu tries to
explain the rise of nationalism and anti-liberal ideologies by discussing
the political psychology of post-Communism.

Poland: Deported, Scattered or
MissingGreg Nieuwsma
Though a scant two per cent of the country's citizens today, Poland's
Ukrainians, Belarusians, Germans and Jews comprise a vital part of
20th-century Polish history.

Interview: Her Story, A
HistoryMarta Meszaros's Kisvilma - Az utolso naploAndrew Princz
Marta Meszaros is is in the process of making a new Diary prequel,
documenting her early childhood in Stalin's Soviet Union and the death of
her father.

Music

Rock Estonian StyleMel Huang
Throughout Ruja's 17-year existence, this groundbreaking band kept a
distinct Estonian flavour and became the best-loved cult rock band in the
country.

On Display

Frana Sramek's Leto on stage
againCatherine Miller
A recent performance of Frana Sramek's Leto (Summer, 1915)
attempts to warm up the chilly autumn nights in Prague, but it soon leaves
its
audience snoozing in a torpor of soothing sunshine.

Coming Up in the UKAndrew J Horton
Details of selected Central and East European cultural events in the UK
over the next few weeks.

Teaching MoralityRobin Healey
In their struggle to adapt to post-1989 reality Czech universities have
given very little moral
guidance to their students.

Hungarian University in TransylvaniaCatherine Lovatt
The debate about the re-creation of the Hungarian Bolyai
University began in 1997, raising issues of national identity, ethnicity
and minority rights.

Your Heart Is Beating Too
LoudlyAndrew J Horton
Lev Kuleshov's Velikii uteshitel' has a curious place in film
history due perhaps to the director's adventurous, and ultimately
misunderstood use of overlapping plots and sentimental slush as means of
satirical and subversive comment on Stalin's brutal brand of Communism.

Music

Arks and LabyrinthsNicholas Reyland
At the end of the 1950s, Poland's contemporary classical music scene
was transformed from neo-classical backwater to avant-garde frontier.

On Display

A photography exhibit on the Kosovo
conflictRobert Young
Testimonies of NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia
photography exhibit, held in the dilapidated Yugoslav Embassy in
Prague's Mala Strana, leaves some sides of the story undisclosed.

Coming Up in the UKAndrew J Horton
Details of selected Central and East European cultural events in the UK
over the next few weeks.

Living in a Policy VacuumMaria Vidali
The exodus of Albanian emigrants to Greece has strained relations
between the two countries, a fact not helped by the lack of concrete
policies on either side.

Chernobyl in Slow MotionPeter Szyszlo
Second instalment of our three-part series examines the effects of
mishandling of radioactive waste has had on Russia's surrounding
waters.

Revival and StruggleGreg Nieuwsma
Although Hungary's Jews are enjoying a cultural blossoming, its Roma
haven't found things quite so rosy. We continue our look at minorities in
Central Europe today.

Theme of the Week: Cities

BERLIN: Building Homes, Building
PoliticsJuan Jose Gomez Gutierrez
After World War II, Berlin lay in ruins and extensive redevelopment was
needed. The results on either side of the Wall were very different.

KATOWICE: A Tale of Many CitiesWojtek Kosc
Poland's Silesia region is facing both the difficult legacy of its
industrial past and the equally difficult prospect of its future.

PRAGUE: Dysfunctional
Decision-makingAndreas Beckmann
The 9 September adoption of a master plan that will guide development,
has done little to resolve fundamental differences and will simply usher in
the next series of battles for the city's future.

SOFIA: Saving SofiaPaul Csagoly
Sofia's green claim to fame is threatened as parks are slowly being
destroyed to open up space for commercial developments.

An Interview with Jozsef
FintaAndrew Princz
As architect of the Westend City Centre and many of Budapest's other
major real estate developments of the past decade, Jozsef Finta is the man
shaping today's Budapest.

A photography exhibit on the Kosovo
conflictRobert Young
Testimonies of NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia
photography exhibit, held in the dilapidated Yugoslav Embassy in
Prague's Mala Strana, leaves some sides of the story undisclosed.

Coming Up in the UKAndrew J Horton
Details of selected Central and East European cultural events in the UK
over the next few weeks.

Chernobyl in Slow MotionPeter Szyszlo
The third and final installment looks at further efforts to deal with
the problem of radioactive waste as well as new developments since
glasnost.

Theme of the Week: Prostitution

CZECH REPUBLIC: Taxing the
ProfessionalsKazi Stastna
Dubi is no longer the roadside peepshow it once was, and state
authorities are getting ready to tax the gals into oblivion, or at least
out of sight.

Apologists Rejoice!Kieran Williams
It's no secret that Prague Castle has been on the offensive to
discredit John Keane's new critical biography of Vaclav Havel.
Unfortunately, Keane seems to have shot himself in the foot before the
battle's even begun.

Clinton's Pep-talk in SofiaZhidas Daskalovski
On 22 November, tens of thousands of cheering people gathered in Sofia
to hear Bill Clinton tell them "you too shall overcome." Why didn't he
deliver the same message to Macedonia?

Reversing XenophobiaPaul Nemes
Two weeks ago, the Hungarian component of the new "rainbow coalition"
met for their annual conference to assess how the reversal of Meciar's
xenophobic policies is proceeding.

A Decade of Change... to ComeRobin Healey
Czech universities have gone through significant changes over the past
decade. They will need to go through even more in the next.

Why the "Baltic States"?Mel Huang
Over the years, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, have been lumped
together as the "Baltic states." But why?

Nomen est Omen?Sasa Cvijetic
There has hardly been a notion in this century as burdened by negative
connotation as "the Balkans."

To File the WorldWojtek Kosc
The emerging system of lumping in Europe is becoming clear: EU on the
one side and non-EU on the other.

Re-defining East and WestCatherine Lovatt
H J Mackinder's "heartland" theory has been used to explain the
geopolitics of much of the 20th century. Did 1989 throw a spanner in the
works?

A "Kidnapped Central Europe"Magali Perrault
In many respects, the Austrian experience between the end of the Second
World War and the collapse of the Communist bloc in 1989 is the reverse
story - the tale of a "kidnapped Central Europe."

Success Abroad, Questions at HomeMichael J Kopanic
For Dzurinda's coalition to be strong over the next few years, his team
will have to overcome much higher hurdles on the domestic front.

Czech Republic: Rising DiscontentJan Culik
With the economy bordering on crisis and politicians incapable of
fixing the country's problems, the Czech public became increasingly
discontent throughout 1999.

CER's Regular Columnists

Schengen's Iron CurtainZhidas Daskalovski
The EU's Schengen agreement, however, has created a barrier as
effective as the Iron Curtain ever was.

The Magla VocablesSam Vaknin
For the residents of former Communist countries speech is a method of
establishing distance and fending off communication and contact.

The Elders of ZionSam Vaknin
Anti-Semitism is only one species in the zoo of rumours, conspiracy
theories and meta histories.

Hungary's New WavesAndrew J Horton
Hungary has, perhaps, the strongest cinematic tradition of all Central
European countries. Has it produced any masterpieces this decade? Does it
even matter?

Books and Literature

Intellectuals and Politics in
Central EuropeSean Hanley
Intellectuals and Politics in Central Europe, provides uneven
coverage of a variety of themes and cases, juxtaposing insightful analysis
with potted history and abstruse theorising.